Fasting and Keto

From my Virta Dietitian:

There is a rich literature on human recovery following energy or protein privation. In the Minnesota Experiment, lean healthy males who were fed ‘half-rations’ (1600 kcal and 50 g/d protein) for 6 months lost 1/3 of their lean body mass. Once refeeding with adequate protein and energy was begun, it took them over 4 months to approach their original baseline of strength and function, and in so doing, they added excess body fat. In addition to the Marliss study (Errol Marliss, J Clin Invest, 1978), multiple human studies demonstrate that the maximum rate at which a protein-deprived person can gain back lost lean body mass is ¼ pound per day (ie, 4 g/d positive nitrogen balance). So if a day of total fasting causes the loss of ½ to 1 pound of lean body mass per day (depending upon one’s level of keto-adaptation), then it takes at least 2-4 days of full feeding with protein and energy to recover that one day’s loss.

Given the current popularity of intermittent fasting (IF), one would assume that there would be well-designed studies published to demonstrate that its practice does not impair lean tissue preservation, mineral status, or function in humans. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Yes, there are multiple published studies of ‘intermittent fasting’, defined as not eating from morning until early evening every other day, or not eating any protein until the evening meal. There are also a few studies of people eating 75% less or total fasting for every other day. Weight losses are typically about 5% but plateau quickly. At this amount of weight loss, accurate measurement of body composition are problematic, so good data on lean body mass changes are lacking. But many people who practice IF eat nothing or no protein for more than 24 hrs at a time. And more importantly, some people choose to fast for days at a time, assuming that their body can effectively conserve its functional tissue, or make up for it by rapidly recovering lean tissue in the intervals between these fasts. There are other reasons why people fast besides weight loss. Boosting blood ketone levels is increasingly associated with reduced aging and oxidative stress. There are also many reports of energy restriction and reduced cancer growth, but this benefit is not consistently seen in animal models of intermittent fasting (implying that the benefit is in consistent restriction rather than intermittent restriction).

So what does this really mean? Yes, total fasting can cause rapid weight loss, but typically half or more of this will come from lean tissue. And most importantly, depending upon the amounts of protein and energy one consumes after a period of fasting, the rate of recovery of lean tissue will likely be slower than the rate at which it was lost. To be blunt, in the real world, recovery of lean tissue lost as a result of any period of total fasting takes 2-4 times as long as the period of fasting itself.

John Maxwell - The 360° Leader

“He who mistrusts most should be trusted least.” ~ Greek proverb

It takes nine months to produce a baby — no matter how many people you put on the job.

You cannot give what you do not have. In order to develop your staff, you must keep growing yourself.

Max DePree said that it is the first responsibility of a leader to define reality.

When you don’t want to have a difficult conversation, you need to ask yourself: Is it because it will hurt them or hurt me? If it is because it will hurt you, then you’re being selfish. Good leaders get past the discomfort of having difficult conversations for the sake of the people they lead and the organization. The thing you need to remember is that people will work through difficult things if they believe you want to work with them.

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Re: The Law of the Niche: All players have a place where they add the most value.

When I was in high school, I was fortunate to have a coach who understood this. During one of our varsity basketball practices, our coach, Dan Neff, decided he wanted to teach us a very important lesson about basketball. He got the first- and second-string teams out on the floors to scrimmage. That wasn’t unusual—we scrimmaged all the time. Our second team had some good players, but clearly the first team was much better. This time he had us do something very different from the norm. He let the second-string players take their normal positions, but he assigned each of us starters to a different role from our usual one. I was normally a shooting guard, but for this scrimmage, I was asked to play center. And as I recall, our center was put in the point-guard position.

We were instructed to play to twenty, but the game didn’t take long. The second team trounced us in no time. When the scrimmage was over, Coach Neff called us over to the bench and said, “Having the best players on the floor isn’t enough. You have to have the best players in the right positions.”

What’s worse than training your people and losing them? Not training them and keeping them.

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If your people aren’t following, you need to listen more. You don’t need to be more forceful. You don’t need to find more leverage. You don’t need to come down on them. If you listen, they will be much more inclined to follow.

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I’ve never known a person focused on yesterday to have a better tomorrow.

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St. Francis of Assisi said, “Start doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing what is impossible.”

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Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

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There’s an old saying that a smart person believes only half of what he hears, but a really smart person knows which half to believe.

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Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The biggest job in getting any movement off the ground is to keep together the people who form it. This task requires more than a common aim; it demands a philosophy that wins and holds the people’s allegiance; and it depends upon open channels of communication between the people and their leaders.”

Megyn Kelly - Settle for More

Chpt 3, Loc 635

Ten days before Christmas 1985, my family was beginning to gather together for the holiday, with Suzanne home from college. Pete was attending college nearby and was frequently underfoot, though on this particular day he’d opted to watch a football game with his friends rather than at home. I wanted to get the same class ring [my friend] Kelly was ordering. Dad said it was too expensive. I kept complaining, and he kept saying we couldn’t afford it.

I wouldn’t let it go.

He’d had it. He turned and walked out of the kitchen. That was the last exchange I would ever have with my father.

I watched him walk toward the living room, and then I stormed up to my bedroom without saying good night or even acknowledging him. I turned out the light and went to sleep angry. The last image I have of my father alive is of him alone on the couch, staring at the Christmas tree. That sight would haunt me for the rest of my life—the picture of a good man, exasperated and alone.

Just before midnight, Suzanne ran into my bedroom.

“Wake up!” she shouted. “Daddy had a heart attack.”

Chpt 4, Loc 857

One year we [Megyn and Jim (college boyfriend)] went to a Final Four championship dinner; the teams included Yale, Loyola, UNC North Caroline, and Syracuse. Each captain gave a speech to a packed hall. The guy from Yale said, “There have been a lot of eyes on Yale this year, a lot of questions about us. People wonder why we do drills the way we do, why we warm up the way we do. . . . The way we wear our socks is very innocuous. It’s all about teamwork and brotherhood.”

Jim gets up there for the Syracuse team and says, “I can’t speak for all the teams, but we at Syracuse did not have our eyes on Yale, and we didn’t wonder about their drills or their socks. But we were wondering what the word ‘innocuous’ means.”

Chpt 17, loc 3153

I've never worked at a place where some star employee—man or woman—was unknown to everyone, tolling away unnoticed. If you believe this is happening to you, ask yourself if you have worked as hard as possible, studied extensively, and made yourself invaluable. If you can’t honestly say you have done all of those things, quit complaining.